colorbottle
by Ju5t An0th3r H3d63h06
Summary: she's an angel with a broken human past and he's a pop idol on a second chance and although they make a mismatched pair, they'll both be okay, in the end. —au, livecaster, oneshot. {for akichan}


**a/n:** aki, this would be the legit reason why I ditched the boxes. o vo;; anyways…surprise! really super belated livecastershipping approximately one month after your birthday!~ *throws paul-shaped confetti and oreo packages* you're the best unnie I could ever have, and I hope your future years go awesomely! c': I love you and I really hope you enjoy this ficlet! \\n vn/ even though the ending is _absolutely terrible oooooooh my god and holy dash spam wow no_

**a/n #2:** umm…I kind of stepped waaay out of my fandom ship comfort zone to write this, so please don't hesitate to tell me if anyone is ooc or if the implausibility quotient is way past no! thank you very much! u wu

**disclaimer:** don't own it! (don't really want to, either…seems like a lot of work…)

* * *

:: colorbottle ::

* * *

"Are you kidding me?" blurts the brunette girl perched on the lowest branch of the tree, staring incredulously at the scroll of parchment she has just finished reading. Turning towards the bearer of the message, a boy about her age with spiked cobalt hair, she adds frantically, "They gave me an _S-rank_ summons?! And _why _is this effective immediately, again?"

"I could have sworn you definitely wanted a summons last week, Rosa," replies the blunette, amusement reflected in his crimson eyes. "You even chased me down asking if I had mail for you."

"W-well…that's different!" Rosa flushes slightly and makes a face at the messenger angel. "Don't be mean!"

The blunette makes a face right back, replying in the same vein. "Hey, think of it like this: being a guardian angel is a lot of pressure, but it's better than hanging around here on messenger duty, _ne?"_

The petite girl flinches visibly, cursing her abject lack of tact. "A-ah…sorry, Hugh…"

"I'm kidding, geez!" Hugh scoffs and waves her apology away with one black-gloved hand. "I like delivering messages. The wings are awesome." As if to emphasize his point, said wings pop out from his back and propel him several inches into the air—that is, all ten feet seven inches of intimidating bright black feathers.

Flicking a stray feather off her shoulder, Rosa pouts at the messenger angel yet again. "Showoff."

"Ah, you get your powers soon, though," replies Hugh offhandedly as he checks the delivery list. "I mean, that's an official mission letter, right? You're bound to get something cool for being a guardian angel."

"True…" murmurs Rosa noncommittally. "But even so…a high-rank mission right from the start…" Glumly, she slumps back onto her tree branch, clutching the scroll of parchment. "If…if I fail…"

Hugh stuffs the list in a pocket of his red-and-white windbreaker, facing her with an odd look in his crimson eyes. "I'm not gonna lie and say this'll be easy, Rosa. Most angels don't return the same at all. But for what it's worth…I think you've got what it takes."

Rosa stares at him, thoroughly confused. "What…what are you talking about? It's just a summons, you know…"

"And here I was trying to encourage you!" Hugh mock-glares at the brunette and tugs the scrunchie out of one of her ponytails. Rosa yells at him to give it back, but by then the messenger angel is up and away, shooting at top speed towards the next recipient of a summons with the wind in his hair and a wave of farewell. She scowls at the sky.

_That jerk. I'm never gonna get my scrunchie back._

The paper in Rosa's hands warms slightly, a signal and a portent. She sighs reluctantly and opens it once more, closing her eyes as a white light envelops her from head to toe.

_((Time to go.))_

* * *

When the last bits of light vanish, Rosa finds herself standing in a whitewashed hospital room. The sharp tang of antiseptic hits her nostrils, and she cringes slightly, fisting her hands involuntarily in the tulle fabric of her tutu.

Wait…_tutu?_

The brunette bolts for the nearest reflective surface, which happens to be the window, and examines herself in the glass. It's that weird frosted type, so she can't see much, but she manages to pick out regular clothes on her person instead of her usual white dress. Jeans, and a shirt with sleeves almost to her wrists, and brightly colored sneakers, and…yes, that is a bright yellow tutu, and apparently she's stuck with it.

"For a tutu color, I guess it's not bad," remarks Rosa with a sigh. "Still, I wish I could get some wings…"

A nurse chooses this particular moment to open the door. Catching sight of Rosa, she shrieks at the top of her lungs, her clipboard falling to the floor with a clatter. Quickly, the teenager focuses her energy on a colorshift and vanishes from the visible spectrum before the eyes of the terrified nurse, who screams again and flees from the room yelling something about ghosts.

_Letting myself get spotted…at least I wasn't in full-on angel mode, I guess…_

Rosa sighs defeatedly and decides that she should probably hurry before something else goes wrong. Picking her way carefully around the dropped clipboard, she tiptoes towards the hospital cot and consults the assignment scroll in her back pocket once more. For some strange reason, it has decided to morph itself into a cell phone, and she spends an agonizing few minutes attempting to draw the passcode until she remembers the pattern of her angel emblem and goes with that. Surprisingly enough, it actually works, and a name flickers once across the screen, along with the briefest flash of a picture.

_[[Curtis Vale]]_

"Curtis…?"

Rosa tries the name aloud. The instant she does so, the phone (?) emits an odd beep and deactivates itself with an audible click. Blinking a bit in confusion, the brunette sticks it back into her pocket and steps closer to the hospital bed, drawing the spell for entering a dream space in midair and letting herself be sucked in through the portal.

* * *

"Hi, who are you and why are you in my mind?"

Rosa jumps about a foot and almost runs into the asker of the question. He's taller than her, with spiked blond-and-green hair and bright emerald eyes, and he is wearing what appears to be a dressed-up version of jeans and a suit jacket. The stage-presence look is topped off with the small microphone attached to his ear.

"Spring cleaning!" blurts Rosa before her brain catches up with her mouth. Her cheeks paint themselves rosy pink—_what type of answer is spring cleaning? Get ahold of yourself!_—and she hurriedly amends her statement. "Um! N-never mind that! You're…Curtis, right?"

"That's me!" The teenager salutes and flashes her a grin. "Stage persona Christoph, but that's kind of out of commission at the moment for reasons obvious. Also known as a car. What about you? Mental spring cleaning isn't a legit profession, you know…"

Completely shell-shocked by his lackadaisical attitude, Rosa gapes. "I would be a little more worried about random strangers appearing in my mind if I were you!"

"Yeah, but you have wings," points out Curtis amicably, tucking his hands in the pockets. "So you have to have some sort of special power to get here."

"That's not always a good thi—did you just say _wings?"_ The brunette turns her head around as best she can and discovers that Curtis is right: five feet of glossy feathers extend partially from either side of her back, light green and pale pink and sky blue and brushed purple (like a spray can full of pastel colors just exploded behind her, but she could care less because _wings_ and she can _fly—_)

—she _can't_ fly, she discovers quickly, not too well anyways, and some of the excitement fades as Curtis rolls around laughing on what passes for the ground in this strange place.

"You're an interesting sort of angel, you know."

"Theatrics are for snobs," declares Rosa vehemently, picking herself up and dusting off her jeans (and trying to ignore the fact that a cute boy is laughing at her.) "I think you should be sincere with how you feel about what you do. And that's what's _really _important, not the whole 'falling from heaven' thing."

"Well, I can't deny that," replies Curtis with a shrug. Running a hand through his lime-tipped hair and unconsciously making it even spikier than usual, he adds, "So, what brings a guardian angel into my head? Unless, of course, this is all a very lucid hallucination."

"I am not a figment of your imagination, I assure you," replies Rosa with an indignant sort of huff. She's pouting, but she refuses to admit it as she continues, "I'm here to save your life."

"Whaaaat?" Curtis's jaw drops. "So I'm dead already?"

Rosa glares at him. _This guy is way too impatient for his own good._ "No, dummy. We wouldn't be having this conversation if you were."

"But…why me?" Curtis fixes Rosa with piercing emerald eyes, looking genuinely confused. "I mean, being famous doesn't usually warrant a second chance, last I checked."

"I'm here because…actually, hold on a second." Rosa takes the phone (?) out of her back pocket and consults it once more under the watchful eyes of the blond-haired teen. "There's a really long, really official statement here, but the gist of it is that you made a promise that bonds you to this world."

Curtis blinks. "What does that even mean?"

"Basically, a last wish." Rosa cringes as she says the words, knowing there is no remotely delicate way to put it.

"…Ah." Curtis deflates visibly, and a tormented look flicks across his features.

Rosa stares awkwardly at the ground, scuffing it with the toe of her sneaker. "The decision…it's up to you. I can't…_make _you go back if you don't want to."

"Nope, I'm definitely going back!" declares Curtis cheerfully in a tone that brooks no argument. "Nancy would probably kill me if I—ooh, bad pun," he tacks on, laughing slightly.

The guardian angel puts a hand to her face, muttering through her fingers, "You did _not _just say that."

"Oh, that's right! What's your name?" asks Curtis, grinning enthusiastically at her.

"My name's Rosa," answers the brunette. "Rosa…Blanc." And as she says it, she realizes that Blanc is not a last name she snatched out of thin air, it's the first of her memories as a human and _wow how did that even happen—_

"Rosa," repeats Curtis, trying out her name like how she tried his a while ago, and Rosa tries to ignore how her heart skips a beat.

* * *

She draws another symbol in midair, one for release, and a thin trail of white light appears in front of them both.

"You want me to follow this?" Curtis looks a bit unsure, and Rosa thinks ruefully that she hasn't given him any reason not to be, what with the previous display of potential incompetence—but there's nothing she can do about her unconventionality as a guardian angel for now. She nods once, surely.

"Yup. I'll be right here next to you, if it helps."

"Sure it helps," replies Curtis amicably as he steps onto the path. "I mean, you're my official guardian angel now, right? That counts for a lot, where I'm concerned."

"D-don't get used to it!" protests Rosa, fighting back a blush. "I'm only here for a little bit to make sure you're able to continue with your wish! And that's it, honest!"

"Okay, but once you see what ice cream is, I'm pretty sure you're going to want to stay forever." Curtis adopts a lofty expression and starts listing things on his fingers. "Oh, and once you find out what TV is, that too. And let's see…roller coasters, and concerts, and ice skating and hot chocolate afterwards, and the night sky, and…"

Rosa tries hard to retain her stern expression, although by now she's hanging on every unfamiliar word her companion says.

_An introduction to the human world…maybe I'll get some of my memories back!_

Cheered by this thought, she doesn't even notice she's not touching the ground anymore until Curtis points out that she's floating.

"I can do that? Oh no—" Abruptly, she crashes, and the chartreuse-haired performer coughs to hide his laugh as he extends a hand.

"Once again, I have to say: you're not a very conventional guardian angel."

"_It's the thought that counts!"_ Embarrassed, Rosa snatches her hand from his and stomps ahead on the path, ignoring the hurt expression flashed in her direction.

* * *

Rosa sits on the lone chair next to Curtis's bedside and waits for him to wake up, amusing herself by testing out her multicolored wings and her newfound floating ability. She discovers, quite by accident, that she can phase through solid objects, and also that said phasing does_ not _work when she is in "human" form, so to speak. The same nurse catches her with her arm through a wall as she is experimenting, and needless to say a large portion of the staff on the fifth floor of Kamitsure Medical Center goes home terrified out of their wits.

"Do all angels prank people in their spare time?"

Rosa blushes furiously and turns to face Curtis, who is grinning mischievously at her from the hospital bed. "I-it was an accident!"

Curtis laughs. His voice is fainter than before, probably due to disuse, and he sports a hospital gown and a magnificent case of bedhead instead of the outfit from before _(and is it her imagination, or did his hair change colors?) _but he is every bit the same person that Rosa met a day ago.

"I'm so serious! We're generally very particular about our job, you know…" Rosa trails off, concern welling up in her eyes as she notices Curtis wincing. "…Umm, are you all right? Should I go get a nurse?"

Emerald eyes cast an amused glance in her direction. Belatedly, the brunette realizes that with her current rep as the "ghost of level five" she probably won't be of much help. "A-ah, never mind then…"

"Forget about that, I need to introduce myself properly!" The hyperactive blond hurriedly attempts to fix his hair, only succeeding in making it worse, before sticking out a hand as best he can while a wire is taped onto it. "Umm…I'm Curtis Vale! It's nice to finally meet you in person—well…sort of," he adds as Rosa raises an eyebrow. "Oh, and because you saved my life, I owe you a wish!"

"A…wish?" Forgetting about her own introduction, Rosa stares at him. "But…you realize that only applies if _you_ save an angel's life, right? Not the other way around?"

"But _you_ saved _my _life. Thus I now owe you a wish. So you have to stay here for the time being," says the chartreuse-haired male confidently.

Rosa pokes two fingers together nervously. "Um. It doesn't really work like that…"

Curtis smirks conspiratorially at her. "I'll give you a tour of the human world when I get out of here."

"Done," blurts Rosa before she registers what she's agreed to. "I mean, _wait a minute—"_

"You gotta hide now. Someone noticed I was awake." Curtis cuts off her train of thought with the warning, and Rosa colorshifts just in time to evade the same nurse who has spotted her twice now. Trying not to giggle, she sits on the windowsill as the nurse examines the room suspiciously before calling in a doctor.

* * *

The "miraculous recovery" hailed in the papers that Curtis snags from the hospital hangout room (as Rosa has aptly dubbed it) is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that to any outsider he appears to be having long and detailed conversations with no one. The doctors run test after test, the nurses blame it on the Fifth Floor Ghost, and the media has a field day; and all the while, the pop star talks to Rosa in detail about the world outside and watches with amusement as she soaks it all up intently.

"Why can't you go outside on your own?" asks Curtis one day after the nurse deposits his lunch on a tray near his bed. Making a face, he picks up a spoon and digs into the slate-colored mashed potatoes and dry chicken. "Blech. Hospital food."

Rosa jumps off the ground and spreads her wings, hovering a few inches as she considers the question. She could technically fly off and never come back if she really wanted to, but something keeps her here day after day as she waits for the blond to recover…

"Wait a sec, that's it!" The brunette drops to the floor, all manner of concentration gone as she realizes something. "I didn't even realize I was waiting for you to get better!"

"Ng…hwa'?!" Curtis chokes on a mouthful of food, and Rosa quickly hands him a glass of water. Gulping down the drink, he blurts out in a rush, "You _what?_ _Why?_ I'm gonna be here for a few more days at best! You should go out and have fun!"

"Maybe, but it's not fun if you don't have anyone to share it…with…" The brunette trails off, eyes widening in panic as black spots swarm her vision—

—_there's a whirl of color and sound all around her but she can't pick out anything specific except the person standing next to her has dark hair and dark eyes and he's asking her something: "hey, why didn't you come here before? the park opened up ages ago, plus your job's closer" and she hears herself answer: _"it's not fun if you don't have anyone to share it with_—_

—she's lying on the cold floor of the hospital, and that's all the evidence she needs that this particular summons wasn't just some type of _fluke_ or _accident,_ and Hugh…

"Hugh knew," she finishes in a whisper, and her heart breaks as she remembers his words to her. "He _knew_ why I got such a weird summon. They sent me down here to regain my _memories,_ not to _help_ anyone. _Of course not._ Because I'm a failure…"

All of a sudden she feels herself being lifted slightly off the ground and a pair of arms wrap themselves around her, and Curtis is telling her sternly that _no you are not a failure, hello, you saved me and I am very much alive thank you and you are not allowed to go catatonic because I haven't even granted you your wish yet._ And much later, when the long-suffering nurse comes in, she finds the blond with his arms wrapped protectively around an exhausted-looking girl who is very much real (and also Very Much Not Allowed In The Hospital Room even though it's not ICU anymore, just the regular medical ward) she merely rubs her eyes a bit, sighs heavily, and transfers the blanket from the bed to the floor.

* * *

Waking up is awkward, to say the least.

Rosa and Curtis spring apart like they've been burned, Rosa retreating to a corner of the room as Curtis snatches the blanket and piles onto his bed (which is mysteriously missing a pillow.) Silence reigns for a bit, and then—

"I have to know." Rosa stares at the floor, arms wrapped around her torso like she's cold (which she's not, at least not outwardly, anyways.) "I…there's these huge holes in my human memory, and I just…"

"We can sneak out," offers Curtis, grinning maniacally. "I'm sick of being hospital-bound. It gets waaaay old."

"You'll get in trouble," mutters Rosa dully.

"Don't care." Curtis drops the blanket and walks over to stand next to her. "Listen, you're obviously dealing with something way beyond me right now. But…if this is the city where you lost your memories, I'm gonna help you like you helped me."

"Can that be my wish?" The tiniest of smiles appears on Rosa's face.

"…You cheater!" The blond scowls, grabbing the pillow from the floor and hurling it in her direction. It misses by a mile, and Rosa can't resist taunting him by phasing into a wall.

Curtis glares at the wall and threatens to throw a chair at it.

"They'll call you crazy!" singsongs Rosa, but she retreats from the wall anyway.

Abandoning the pillow, the teenager runs his fingers through his hair a bit nervously, making its lime tips stick out even more. "…So, um…you want to go to the carnival tonight or something?"

Rosa stares at him incredulously. "You were serious about sneaking out?"

"Uh, duh," declares Curtis, flopping backwards onto the bed. "If that's what it takes for you to get a hundred percent back to normal, then heck yeah. I'm not gonna watch you collapse 'cause of your mental blocks and do nothing about it."

"But you just—I mean, the hospital—" Rosa stammers out, completely incapable of stringing together a sentence. _You just got out of a coma!_

Curtis makes a face similar to the one he reserves for hospital cuisine. "I was supposed to be out of here yesterday. The only reason they're keeping me in is because they think I'm certifiably crazy. I'll be fine."

Sensing that an argument will be futile, Rosa flings her hands up into the air in exasperation. "Ugh, fine, have it your way. We can sneak out tonight if you so wish."

Curtis's expression is triumphant. "I believe the words you are looking for are 'thank you'."

Rosa glares at his direction and snatches the abused pillow from the floor.

"What are you—ow! Hey! I'm injured! Take pity on me!"

* * *

They sneak out that evening, and although he has to forcibly drag Rosa out the back door, the past four weeks of waiting re all worth it to Curtis as he catches sight of the expression on the girl's face when she spots the sun setting right above the faraway Twist Mountain. Rosa is practically vibrating with excitement as Curtis introduces her to stars and the carnival and the Ferris wheel, and everything in the city seems to be a trigger but she smiles a lot because it's mostly good memories.

(and then they reach the roller coaster.)

Someone mentions the technical failure two years ago as they're in the line and all of a sudden the flames are all around her and _she has to get out_—

* * *

_(—Hugh didn't tell her because they were his memories too, because she came here with him on the day she died, and it hurts—)_

* * *

—she's outside now and it's Hugh in her memories but Curtis asking her what's wrong.

Haltingly, Rosa tells him what she remembers now: fire, lots of it, orange and red flaring up around them and licking at the sides of the roller coaster car and suddenly the world tilts sideways, Hugh yells her name as he breaks past a line of firefighters and fights his way to where she is—_rosa, where are you? c'mon rosa you have to wake up we need to get out please wake up_—the flames are getting brighter, and she can't breathe can't speak can't move, she sees the explosion happen sees Hugh framed in the light, dark hair all over the place and crimson eyes wide in panic as he yells her name—_ROSA!_—and then…nothing.

She cries a lot into Curtis's shirt, and thinks that maybe this was what Hugh meant when he said this wouldn't be easy. But she knows now, and that's half the battle, so she stands up and wipes her eyes and summons every shred of courage she possesses to grin at Curtis and tell him she's okay, because Hugh was brave and faced every day head-on and the least she can do is try to repay him for being her friend in this life and in the past one.

* * *

Life, and the night, goes on. Curtis buys her coffee and they sneak into the backstage wing of a concert, and he whispers to her that if they're caught she better have some sort of angel invisibility mojo because they'll probably both get arrested. Rosa assures him that yes, she does have a plan and it involves loads of sparkles, and then almost falls off the chair because _wow that's loud music._ She glances back at Curtis, who's bright-eyed and grinning hugely and so obviously in his element that it's blinding, and she smiles back—

—because even though she's an angel with a broken human past and he's a teenage idol on a second chance and although they make a mismatched pair, they'll both be okay, in the end.

* * *

_(and besides, he still owes her a wish.)_

* * *

—the end.


End file.
